Down but not Out Psalm 129
“Whereas most nations tend to look back on what they have achieved, Israel reflects here on what she has survived. It could be a disheartening exercise, for Zion still has its ill-wishers. But the singers take courage from the past, facing God with gratitude and their enemies with defiance” (Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150, p. 444). Even though this Psalm speaks of God’s faithfulness in the Old Testament, Christians can certainly draw applications from it (Romans 15:4), for:
We are God’s people (1 Peter 2:9-10)) God’s people still have enemies (John 15:18) We remain persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12) Tremendous pressure surrounds us as well , 2 Corinthians 6:9 “as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death”); 2 Corinthians 4:9,11 “Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake”
The Scarred Survivor “Many times they have persecuted me from my youth up” (129:1) The mention of Israel’s youth leads our minds back to the Exodus, “When Israel was a youth, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). “This was the best starting-point for reflections on suffering, as the cross the resurrection are for the Christian. Many of the later ordeals of Israel, unlike the Egyptian bondage, were